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Well, 2-3 weeks ago I started a simulation of the 2013-14 season using NHL 13, and transferred over to NHL 14 when the early release came out. To cut down on the time, I only did games that were televised in the US nationally (of course this meant some teams got the shaft, like Calgary, Edmonton, Florida and the like). However to compensate for that I did a wild card system that resulted in Phoenix and Florida making the playoffs. The matchups were:

Things to note, I did this in the old playoff format and excluded division leaders, and moved Detroit and Columbus over to the East, and Winnipeg to the West. Barry Trotz's dreams came true, with the Wild taking on the Preds in the first round. The Blackhawks once again dominated the regular season (they also got the most nationally televised games, but they won more than 75% of them). We have another matchup between St. Louis and LA, and Pittsburgh and Boston.

Quarter-Finals

In the east, Florida beat Washington in 6 games (yes, Florida), Philadelphia beat Buffalo in 6, Detroit beat the Rangers in 5, and Boston beat Pittsburgh in 5.

In the east, Philadelphia beat Florida in 6 games (Florida put up a hell of a fight man) and Boston beat Detroit in 7.

In the west, Chicago beat Minnesota in 6 games (we just had to get matched up against the Hawks again ) and Los Angeles swept Colorado 4-0.

Conference Finals

The conference finals saw two completely different series. First was a rematch of last years Western final in Chicago and LA. This series was a scoring fest, with all 5 games resulting in pretty high scoring games. This time however, it was LA dispatching Chicago in 5. LA to the final for the second time in 3 seasons.

And in the east, it was a very defensive, low-scoring matchup between Philadelphia and Boston. Most games were very even, 3-2's, 2-1's, and at least 3-4 OT games. Philadelphia ended up going down 3-2 in the series, however held a 2-1 lead in Game 6, up until the 15 second left mark when Boston tied it due to Philly not being able to win faceoffs in their own zone. Philly ended up winning that one in overtime, forcing a Game 7. In Game 7, Philly once again held a lead, leading 3-2 with a chance for an empty net goal, which Matt Read missed, resulting in Iginla breaking up the left side and scoring with 7 seconds left to tie the game. Philadelphia however came out the victors again in overtime, sending them to the Final for the second time in 4 years.

And that's where I'm at now. Should be a great matchup between LA and Philly, and I'll get back to you guys on how that series goes. Won't be for a little while though, GTA5 coming out tomorrow is gonna keep me pretty busy.

(And yes I realize how close this was to being ANOTHER Chicago Boston Final. Let's just be glad neither of those teams made it again, yeah?)

You guys do EASHL on PS3? I've actually never really done it on previous games, but I'm interested in picking it up. How exactly does it all work? Just whoever's online plays? Do you guys have set positions you always play?

Started playing HUT. I currently have Sekera, Pouliot, Rupp, Mitchell and a bunch of 47-60 overall scrubs. I managed to get two wins from a lot better teams that were pretty much full of NHLers. No losses so far.

You guys do EASHL on PS3? I've actually never really done it on previous games, but I'm interested in picking it up. How exactly does it all work? Just whoever's online plays? Do you guys have set positions you always play?

If you want to add me I'm ObjectsInSpace on PSN. I'd love to join.

Well, the spoken language both in voice chat and in FB is Finnish, and we're all Finns so the latency is going to be quite bad for you. I know that from playing with Fel and couple others in NHL 12. There was this constant, small lag and it became quite annoying.

I'd recommend you to either look for a team located in NA. There are plenty of teams looking for players, and the experience is much better than laggy connection with people who you don't understand.

Leveling is getting really slow now in UVHM. Level 54 now. Most of the enemies I face have crazy hit points, like many millions. Pretty much have to hit them with phase lock and tons of elemental damage and then rail them with a rocket launcher while running away.

Leveling is getting really slow now in UVHM. Level 54 now. Most of the enemies I face have crazy hit points, like many millions. Pretty much have to hit them with phase lock and tons of elemental damage and then rail them with a rocket launcher while running away.

It's great so far. However, being a sim racer I'm struggling with the driving mechanics. High end cars and bikes are soooo grippy and stick to the road like glue, which makes driving them very unpredictably predictable (and by that I mean I never know how much grip I'm going to have, because I'm always expecting the car to not have as much grip as it does, does that make sense?). Trucks, vans and the like understeer quite a lot at speed though, which is to be expected, so they're alright.

Besides the grippiness of the cars, they react to bumps pretty realistically. However the damage is lacking in comparison to GTA4. I've yet to see cars deform as much as they did in 4. This may have just been in a mission, although I doubt that, but when cars get seriously damaged they actually start to slow down and be less driveable, and start spitting smoke out of the exhaust until you repair them.

Sounds are great across the board. Cars sound a lot better, guns sound great, ambient city noises sound great. I would honestly give sound a 10/10 at this point, but I've only played 2 hours like I said, so I'm not going to give any ratings on anything.

There is so much I feel like I can do that I haven't done yet. I'm trying to play the game like I would if I was really the characters though. I drive at decent speeds (unless I'm on lunch break from work, in which case I drive full speed everywhere lol), I switch clothes everyday, I don't go anywhere that my character wouldn't go (for instance I wouldn't travel to Blaine County as Franklin at this point, because there's just no need for him to go there).

I've only had one major gripe with the game so far. There is a stranger side-mission that you can do where you get in a tow-truck and tow this old car. It tells you everything to do, up until the point that you back the truck up to the car. Then it doesn't tell you AT ALL how to grab the car with the hook. I sat there for 5-7 minutes just flabbergasted until I started pressing every button, and finally it was clicking the left stick that did it.

I also accidentally car-jacked a taxi driver because I was trying to hail a taxi the old way. Oops! Turns out it's not holding Y (for xbox) anymore, its holding one of the d-pad directions.

Graphics are a big improvement as well. Aliasing is a huge problem for me however; I can't wait till this game comes out on PC and next-gen consoles so it will look even better.

All in all I'd say if you are coming from GTA4, there is a bit of a learning curve as the driving mechanics have changed vastly, and controls have changed quite a bit too. Other than that, the game is fantastic.

how the crap do i get my likeability out of the negatives on Live the Life as a junior player? players sort of like me at a +8 and my family is a +5 but Fans are -10 and management is -15. what the hell? i'm scoring goals. is it all the fights i get into for big hits?

I know! What i was thinking was maybe the Fan part is fans around the league. i get a ton of Boos at away games but none at home.
developing a bit of a Matt Cooke reputation. two way forward, not very good at fighting but hard hitting.

It's great so far. However, being a sim racer I'm struggling with the driving mechanics. High end cars and bikes are soooo grippy and stick to the road like glue, which makes driving them very unpredictably predictable (and by that I mean I never know how much grip I'm going to have, because I'm always expecting the car to not have as much grip as it does, does that make sense?)

As a fellow sim racer, I know exactly what you're talking about. Cars handling realistically and having less grip is actually more predictable, because the loss of grip is more natural and thus easier to counter.

Yeah, I played a full season in WHL as I said earlier. Went something like 60+50=110, destroyed the league in scoring, led my team to the Memorial Cup and got drafted 1st overall by the Jets...

...Only to get sent down to AHL 5 games through the pre-season. I can kind of understand that, since I simmed through 2 of those games, but I got straight A's from the games I played and scored some points, too.

I didn't complain about getting sent down though, and scored 7+2 (yeah, you read that right) in a 11-5 victory in my first AHL game. Second game was a bit slower, as I only managed 4+1. Quick wrister to the short side is very easy to score on in this game.

I'm playing as a power forward BTW, 186cm/6'1" and 100kg/220lbs. That's about my real weight and exactly my real height, because I like to be realistic.

EASHL is still a bit ridiculous, although definitely an improvement from 13. It's way easier to win having 1-2 quick player who simply cherry pick and score on breakaways or odd-man rushes rather than trying to actually play hockey like we do. I'm not saying that we're losing constantly, but it seems rather unfair at times. The fighting mechanic is a huge improvement, as is being able to stand up for my team mates. The downside is that as I'm playing TWF C, my hitting and physical abilities are not top notch but I still stand up for my team and usually get destroyed in fights. But hey, it shows heart...

and scored 7+2 (yeah, you read that right) in a 11-5 victory in my first AHL game. Second game was a bit slower, as I only managed 4+1.

Are you playing on rookie or something? Or is it just that easy to score in this game? I mainly play goalie in BAP/LTL (god help me) and only played one game as a regular skater (which I scored a Lemieux goal in, first goal on my first shot on my first shift), so I wouldn't really know.